Complex Relationships
Try reading this story three times, once through the eyes of each of the principal characters. What are they feeling? What are they after? How do they want to see the conflict resolved?
First, Laban. Laban may have been slow to rumble what was happening but after three days he is in hot pursuit and there comes a time of reckoning. Twice he hears a voice (which he attributes to God) telling him to calm down and watch his words (vv 24 and 29). Sound advice which he seems to take. Even so he does not mince his words, but is his rebuke of Jacob for his rapid and unannounced departure more in sorrow than in anger?
Clearly what really bites him is the theft of the household gods, symbols of ownership and inheritance, but is his remark about being deprived of a fond farewell genuine, disingenuous, simply a matter of saying the right thing or is there a hint of cynicism, suggesting that he would have been glad to have Jacob off his back even at the price of losing his daughters.
Jacob, by contrast, plays the role of the offended innocent party. ‘Not me, guv.’ When he feigns no knowledge of the household gods he is probably telling the truth. Butter would not melt in his mouth. What rattles him is being unfairly accused, when he snaps and pours out all the pain of twenty years, with God once again conveniently on hand to justify his action.
Rachel and Leah. to some extent, are caught in the cross-fire. With blood stronger than water they must surely have had some residual feelings for Laban and the old home. On the other hand, in that macho society they probably knew their position, knew where their loyalty (or best interests) lay, and comforted themselves with the fact that their father had never really had much time for them anyway. And did they ever have a choice?
Such is the complexity of human relationships that even in a different culture 4000 years later similar emotions are not unknown and judgements are never easy.
